Category: Wife

On Saturday, June 4, 2005, CDF and I went to Swansboro to continue to celebrate our anniversary. The plan was to visit the shops, take some more pictures by the waterfront, and eat at Yana’s. When we got there we found that there was a line out the door at Yana’s place. The lady told us it would be a forty-five minute wait. We put our name on the list and then went to browse in some shops (Noah’s Ark, Russels, etc.). Then it started raining. We returned to the restaurant to wait on the bench. It turned out that a lot of people who put their name on the wait-list didn’t stay around to be called, so we ended up getting in sooner than we thought.

For lunch we both had cheeseburgers, fries, and two complimentary onion rings. I was surprised that CDF tried her onion rings, but she seemed to like them, though not enough to eat a lot of it.

After lunch, we walked down to the park on the other side of the bridge… and who did we meet? The Cavanaugh twins. Not the first people that would have come to mind, but it turned out they were both their with dates, touring the town just like we were. We chatted for a few minutes and then went back down town to find a place to take a few pictures.

On the way home we stopped to pick up MDF and stayed a while at CDF’s parent’s house — they were having their Sunday School party — and had some desert. MDF especially liked the fruit/cake/pudding bowl desert.

This past Friday (June 3, 2005) CDF and I celebrated our fifth anniversary. Dom and Amber came over at 3:30 PM to baby sit MDF and gave us the evening to ourselves. CDF had gotten dressed up in her black fitted skirt and the beaded, sleeveless, red and black top. I wore khakis and a nice shirt.

On the bench at the Pergala

To start out we went to Arlie Gardens. We took the camera and tripod to get pictures of us as a couple. We started out in the theme gardens and took a couple of pictures before walking along the lake toward the Pergala. The ground was still damp from rain earlier in the day, but we made it OK. Under the arbor we took a number of good pictures of us together and of CDF by herself.

Under the arbor

As we walked on some more, we had to pass a family of swans that were preening on the side of the bridge. We were okay until we were just passing them, then one of the parents hissed menacingly at us. We took the hint, and walked faster. Fortunately the swans “recognized” us on the way back and “knew” they had already warned us and didn’t feel they needed to say anything again.

The bottle chapel

Before we left we went to see the “bottle chapel” that was constructed out of cement, glass bottles, and sea shells. It was neat. In the center was a tree made out of brass, and there were two benches built into the rear wall. We took some pictures of us sitting on the bench — well I was sitting on the bench and CDF was in my lap. I think a couple who was walking by got a kick out of that.

Having fun in the chapel

Then we left Arlie and went to Wrightville Beach to eat supper at the Oceananic, which was an upscale (to me anyway) restaurant right on the beach. We had a nice view from the second floor, looking over the pier and the out on the water. CDF wanted a table right beside the window, but we settled for a booth against the other wall. CDF ordered a steak and I ordered a shrimp and pasta dish (Fresca I think). For dessert we had chocolate chip pecan pie. The food was good (though my salad was more watery than I like it).

After supper we went out to walk on the beach, but it started raining. We thought we might take shelter under the pier until it stopped, but the wind made it too cold. So we decided to ride up and down Wrightsville Beach for a little bit and then head home for some romance.

We got home in time to put MDF to bed. She had a lot of fun with Amber and “Domey,” and was ready for sleep when we got there. We talked a while with Dom and Amber after she went to bed, but they left about 9:30 PM.

After that…

A few weeks ago CDF went to a nursery in/near Wallace and got a bunch of flowers. We planted them in the bed right in front of our house and in one around some trees in the front yard. The bed in front of the house appears to have poorer soil, and some of the flowers aren’t doing as well as the ones around the trees.

Gerber Daisy

What are these small flowers?

CDF wants to put a bird bath in the middle of these flowers in the near future.

Future location for the bird bath

CDF has been thinking about moving for a while now. I don’t remember for sure when she started, but recently we’ve been looking at houses (more than half seriously). Part of what has prompted us is the way the housing market is going right now. It looks like we could sell our house very quickly and probably for the price we asked (looking at $110K right now). So we know we could sell our house, the question was, could we find a house we liked for a price we liked.

We’ve been looking in Burgaw and Rocky Point, since in those places the houses come with more land than in New Hanover, and we want at least half an acre. Last night we looked at a cute little house in downtown Burgaw. The people living there did nothing to get ready for our visit and it was very junky, but the house itself looks like it has a lot of potential — a lot of work to do, but it could be very nice. CDF is going to look at it again today.

CDF had a successful book show last weekend. From what I understand, her party sold over $450 of books, which of course translates to a lot of free books that she’ll get. The lady did show a lot of nice books, especially the 3-book encyclopedia set.

Lately CDF has been feeling sick in the morning and in the evening, almost every day. She just swtiched to regular birth-control pills, and at first we thought that she was just getting used to them. But when it persisted we started to get a little worried… maybe she was pregnant.

She took a test this morning that came up negative.

Hopefully it is just an adjustment period from switching to new pills… and maybe it won’t last much longer.

My poor sweet wife.

CDF is starting to get into quilting as a hobby. She’s already made one quilt as a throw for Stephanie and Vasco, and she’s currently working on another for her nephew. But I think she’s gotten even more inspired (although we had to fight off some dispair) after we went to a quilt show on Saturday.

There were a lot of beautiful quilts on display at the show, some were more complex than others (not to mention the group that were all hand sewn). She found one pattern that she’d like to try soon, but most of them just amazed her. She got to talk to some people, and may try going to the quilting meetings that are held locally. I think it would be great if she could get involved with somthing like this.

We should have taken our camera and taken pictures of the best quilts, but alas we didn’t know that camera’s were allowed until we got inside. A lot of artistry is involved in quiliting, more than I realized before.

In a touch of irony, CDF had another, stronger, episode of labor (false or otherwise) today. It involved another trip to the hospital and, of course, we were sent back home, frustrated to have had another false alarm.

On Tuesday, around 1pm, CDF called me saying she was having contractions again and asked if I could come home. I hadn’t taken lunch yet so I set off. She had called the doctor, but it would take them an hour or so to get back with her.

It has been an exciting (using the word loosely) week. Starting off with Sunday, CDF was having more false labor. At least *I* thought it was false labor, and I went on to church, leaving CDF with Caroline Ford (a neighbor from across the street). Well while they were at home, CDFs contractions started occuring only 9 or so minuites apart (I found out later that’s a warning sign for preterm labor). So on the advice of Duan Ford, who is a police officer and aparently has some training in this area, they called the doctor who told them to head for the hospital.

So I got a call just before my Dad was getting ready to give the morning sermon/talk (he was filling in for Pastor John). I took off at high speed, and headed for home. I had told Caroline that I would meet them at the hospital, but changed my mind on the way when I thought it would be better to swing by home and make sure I got the overnite bag (just in case). Well I was very speedy and met them as they turned the first corner on White Rd. So CDF switched cars and we sped off for the hospital.

By this time CDF’s contractions had slacked off, so the trip wasn’t too stressful. She was able to walk without any difficulty into the hospital and up to the third floor.

When we were shown into a room (the emergency pregnancy room), the nurse hooked her up to a monitor that watched contractions and the baby’s heartbeat. Everything looked fine. After the physical exam, we were told that the cervix was closed and they were pretty sure she wasn’t going to give birth anytime soon, but they’d monitor her for the next hour since she was dehydrated slightly (which could be causing the contractions). A few small contractions were showing up on the monitor, but in general everything looked fine.